This Week in Baseball 4/7 - 4/13

[geniusMoment 0]

Cueto's final line 6 and 1/3 innings, 8 k's, 0 BB, 2 ER. But, it should've only been one run, Dunn bobbled a ball in the outfield that led to the first run.

 

And Reds made Suppan look like Cy Young, Cueto deserved a better fate or a better team behind him. Edwin had a ball go under his glove which caused Cueto to make about 10-15 more pitches, causing him to leave. Really, he made one mistake, and Bill Hall hit a home run. But make no mistake about it, Cueto is a damn good number 2 starter right now.

[Dandy 0]

I've stated this elsewhere, but not on the board to my knowledge. Cueto's style could lead to him getting hammered in a few games this year. He throws way more strikes than balls and has good heat. He is probably going to give up his fair share of homers in GABP. Still, a great young talent for the Reds, and he was calling a lot of his own pitches out there tonight. He has a great grasp of how to pitch at such a young age. Soto working with Cueto and Volquez has been tremendous so far.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Alberto Gonzalez got pulled in the seventh inning tonight, often that's a precursor to a call-up. Wonder if Derek Jeter is DL bound.

 

For Reds fans, Homer Bailey looked impressive at times tonight. He struck out seven, hitting 95 mph on his fastball at his best.

[Dandy 0]

Was he still behind in the count a lot?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Was he still behind in the count a lot?

Seven instances in 21 at bats. Only two batters got three balls on him, and one of those was a four pitch walk. If you put stock in strikeouts swinging versus missing, all seven Ks were swinging strikeouts.

[geniusMoment 0]

Corey Patterson, I think I love you. His third HR of the year.

[Dandy 0]

Was he still behind in the count a lot?

Seven instances in 21 at bats. Only two batters got three balls on him, and one of those was a four pitch walk. If you put stock in strikeouts swinging versus missing, all seven Ks were swinging strikeouts.

Sounds like an improvement. I hope he continues to develop.

[Guest Teal-y Dan]

If Gagne falls fatass-backwards into another win after blowing a save, I will laugh and laugh. Heart of the order's up for Milwaukee, too.

[geniusMoment 0]

Brewers win thanks to another outstanding showing by the reds offense. Ugh. Only a week into the season and I'm already sick of Edwin Encarnacion. But, Torres gets the win not gagne, but you can still laugh I suppose.

[Guest Teal-y Dan]

Ugh. Only a week into the season and I'm already sick of Edwin Encarnacion.

 

[geniusMoment 0]

The good news is Josh Fogg pitches tomorrow, that means what, the Brewers will be 7-1 or 8-1 after tomorrow. They might give the Orioles a run for their money in the world series this year.

[Guest Teal-y Dan]

7 or 8 and 1? If you beat Josh Fogg's sorry ass hard enough, you get a double win?

 

Hey, let's talk minor league baseball for a sec. With travel getting expensive these days, is it time to try to convert the Northern and Frontier Leagues to Double-A circuits for midwestern teams? The Cubs, White Sox, and Brewers have their AA teams in Knoxville, Birmingham, and Huntsville, with AAA teams in Des Moines, Charlotte, and Nashville, resp. Other than Des Moines, none of those are particularly practical. There are some great ballparks in Rockford, Schaumburg, and Gary--YES, EVEN GARY--that could have their statures increased by affiliating with the local teams. Gary with the White Sox is a natural fit, and the Cubs couldn't go wrong with either Rockford or Schaumburg. The Blackhawks finally wised up and moved their AHLers from all the way out in Norfolk to a 90-minute drive (optimistically) down the Northwest Tollway. MiLB should try to capitalize more on baseball-hungry Chicagoland and offer more alternatives for the incerasing number of priced-out fans. Let them at least watch the farmhands.

 

The Twins can get in on this too: Fargo makes more sense than New Britain if they can find a better AAA than Rochester.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Here's the catch Czech. Minor league affiliates are not controlled by the parent clubs. The team in New Britain is owned by an entity there, and they have the rights to a AA franchise. Ditto for nearly all minor league clubs (there are exceptions such as Richmond). In order to move teams to those areas near Chicago, the teams there would need to convince an existing AA/AAA club to sell out. Since Rochester for example has held an International League team since the days of Stan Musial, that's unlikely.

 

Proximity to the major league club may be important for the AAA club, otherwise how often do you need to bring in a player from A/AA? Not often. The bigger problem is that if you move around the affiliates due to travel costs, it becomes more expensive to travel among those leagues. It's expensive enough for the Southern League without expanding to run from Huntsville to Gary. For those leagues, longer series (five games instead of four) is already on the docket.

 

The bigger question from me is why worry whether a minor league club is affiliated? Those teams in Schaumburg and Gary are at least as good as most AA clubs. You don't get the prospects, but the quality of play is still good.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I was at the Brewers/Reds game last night and it was a pretty good showing on both sides. Cueto is indeed a great young pitcher, though I think he will get knocked around a bit if he doesn't adjust and guys start figuring him out a bit more.

 

Had to leave in the middle of the 8th inning (we live quite a ways from Milwaukee and the wife and I had to work today), so we didn't catch Patterson's home run. I was pretty much cursing at the radio when that happened.

 

Oh yeah...announced attendance was in the 27,000 range. Who would've thought we would have seen that kind of attendance at an early April Tuesday night Brewers game just a few years ago?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Jerry Crasnick has an article on espn.com about teams who started slow and yet reached the postseason. '05 Astros are good, as were the '07 Rockies (three teams from last year is overkill though). No mention of the 1914 Miracle Braves? It's not like it's an obscure footnote in baseball history.

[CanadianChris 0]

That was a bad article (maybe lazy's a better word), but typical of today's short-attention-span world. The only two teams not from the past decade are two of the most famous teams of all time. And I'd hardly put a team whose "bad start" was 0-3 in the top 9 comebacks from slow starts.

 

The '89 Blue Jays started 12-24, fired their manager, and then proceeded to win the division, leading for the entire month of September. THAT'S coming back from a bad start. And didn't the A's make an art form out of the slow start at the start of this decade? No mention of them, either.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

And didn't the A's make an art form out of the slow start at the start of this decade? No mention of them, either.

 

Through the first 2 months, their records were as follows.

 

2000: 27-26

2001: 26-26

2002: 25-28

2003: 31-23

2004: 26-23

2005: 19-32

2006: 24-29

2007: 26-26

 

I think it's kind of a myth that Oakland "started slow" as most of those records aren't really hard to overcome deficits outside of 2005 and maybe 2006. I think it's more widely thought simply because Oakland just got so hot after the all-star break that their 1st half always "seemed" like a slow start in comparison.

 

Here are the 1st Half/2nd Half breakdowns (Baseball-Reference)

2000: 48-38 vs. 43-32

2001: 44-43 vs. 58-17

2002: 50-38 vs. 53-21

2003: 54-39 vs. 42-27

2004: 47-39 vs. 44-32

2005: 44-43 vs. 44-31

2006: 45-43 vs. 48-26

 

In all of those years, they were above .500 in the 1st half. Not exactly "slow" at all.

[CanadianChris 0]

The article was talking mainly of the first 20-40 games, though. If you look at all the years where they made the playoffs this decade, they were at least four games under .500 at some point after the first three weeks of the season four times out of 5:

 

2000: 9-13 on April 26

2001: 8-18 on May 1

2002: 20-26 on May 23

2003: never under .500

2006: 23-29 on May 30

 

I'd call each of those a slow start.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Fair enough... I'm sure that there are some teams who may serve as better nominations but here's my top 10 list in no discernible order. The '69 Mets were 9-14 at one point but were pretty strong since then honestly just playing in a tough division.

 

My 10 in no order...

Atlanta Braves 1914 (12-28)

Toronto Blue Jays 1989 (9-17)

Oakland Athletics 2001 (8-18)

St. Louis Cardinals 1949 (12-17) Replacement (For Al): Washington Senators 1924 (13-17)

Pittsburgh Pirates 1979 (12-18)

Houston Astros 2005 (12-23)

Colorado Rockies 2007 (17-25)

Florida Marlins 2003 (16-22)

Kansas City Royals 1984 (27-35)

Detroit Tigers 1987 (10-18)

 

I included Kansas City just because of the surprise and no, I didn't stick to the first 3-4 weeks/20-40 game guideline so meh.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Regarding the '49 Cardinals, I think making the playoffs is a prerequisite. Otherwise it just proves that the slow start did them in.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

So how about them Tigers?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Wow. The Mets fucked up another double play ball.

[devo 0]

That was embarrassing. At least it only cost them one run this time.

 

Edit: Six walks for Kendrick and one run scored. This is insane.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Kyle Kendrick is the luckiest f'n pitcher alive. 2 IP, 6 BB, just one earned run.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Kendrick really sucks tonight. The smoke and mirrors have lost their magic.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Since the Os now have a back to back doubleheader tomorrow, Id say the odds of them extending the winning streak much further are shot.

 

 

[devo 0]

Really sloppy game at Shea tonight. Four errors in three innings.

[garfieldsnose 0]

I guess without Rollins in there, nobody has a clue of what they're doing. Damn Ruiz, Bruntlett, Kendrick. Hopefully there's comeback magic tonight for the Fightin's.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I'm strangely at piece with this for some reason. What an ugly game though. Seven walks, four errors, 90 minutes and not even through the 3rd inning.

[garfieldsnose 0]

While I utterly despise the media's portrayal of Philly's dominance over the Mets, I hate losing to any team. Very unrealistic expectations for a baseball team, but oh well.